In semiconductor manufacturing processes, generally, semiconductor wafers are transferred to, e.g., a variety of processing apparatuses or inspecting apparatuses by using a Front Opening Unified Pod (FOUP) serving as a hermetically sealed transfer container, in order to reduce particle contamination of the wafers. The FOUP includes a door to open or close an opening formed on a front surface of a transfer container main body. For use of the FOUP, a load port located near a processing apparatus is provided with an FOUP mounting table and a door support. As the mounting table is moved to the door support, a key of the door support is engaged with a key hole of the door to secure the door to be opened and supported by the door support. The door support also serves to selectively expose a wafer transfer environment in a processing apparatus (e.g., a wafer inspecting apparatus) to the outside. Generally, the door support is moved downward after engaging with the door of the FOUP to support it, thereby allowing the opening of the FOUP to communicate with the wafer transfer environment (see Patent Document 1).
A probe apparatus for use in a final step of a semiconductor manufacturing process also includes a load port of a FOUP. The probe apparatus has a plurality of, e.g., two, probe units for the sake of enhanced probe test efficiency. This probe apparatus includes a loader in which two load ports are arranged to face each other across a standby region of a wafer transfer device, and the two probe units are arranged in the loader. In this configuration, an arm of the transfer device is moved downward after receiving a wafer from the FOUP and, then, is obliquely reciprocated leftward or rightward to deliver the wafer to a stage provided in any one of the probe units. However, since the door support is located lower than the FOUP, restrictions in layout including, e.g., a wafer delivery position on the stage of the probe unit, or a distance between the load ports are inevitable, in order to keep clear a space for the arm and the side of the door support.
Further, in case of increasing the number of probe units while maintaining a planar quadrilateral shape of the entire probe apparatus, center positions of the probe units located at both ends of the probe apparatus may be displaced because a Y-directional dimension of the entire probe apparatus is determined by a sum of dimensions of the probe units. Accordingly, in order to transfer wafers to the probe units located at both ends of the probe apparatus while avoiding contact with the door support, the load ports should protrude leftward or rightward beyond the probe units. In the probe apparatus in which the door of the FOUP is moved downward, effective utilization of a region below an FOUP mounting region is impossible and this hinders, e.g., arrangement of an electric unit or a pre-alignment unit.
To solve the above-described problem, Patent Document 2 discloses a configuration in which a door of an FOUP is opened and rotated laterally. However, the disclosed FOUP is not universally applicable and is not usable in practice.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2008-91597 (Paragraph 0049)    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-249537 (Paragraph 0007)